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Sam Nunn

Former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn is a member of The Concord Coalition's Board of Directors. He served as a U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1972 to 1996, and previously served as the Coalition’s co-chairman from 1997 to 2001.

Raised in the small town of Perry in middle Georgia, he attended Georgia Tech, Emory University and Emory Law School, where he graduated with honors in 1962. After active duty service in the U.S. Coast Guard, he served six years in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve. He first entered politics as a member of the Georgia House of Representatives in 1968.

During his tenure in the U.S. Senate, Senator Nunn served as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. He also served on the Intelligence and Small Business Committees. His legislative achievements include the landmark Department of Defense Reorganization Act, drafted with the late Senator Barry Goldwater, and the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, also known as the Nunn-Lugar program, which provides incentives for the former Soviet republics to dismantle and safely handle their nuclear arsenals. Senators Nunn and Richard Lugar were nominated for the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize for their work in conceiving, legislating and sustaining this important program.

Senator Nunn is the co-chairman and CEO of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization with a mission to strengthen global security by reducing the risk of use and preventing the spread of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons and to work to build trust, transparency, as preconditions to the fulfillment of the Non-Proliferation Treaty’s goals.

In addition to his work with NTI, Senator Nunn has continued his service in the public policy arena as a distinguished professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech and as chairman of the board of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC. He is a board member of The Coca- Cola Company and General Electric Company.

He is married to the former Colleen O’Brien and has two children, Michelle and Brian.